Spieth eyes being youngest-ever Masters winner, sharing lead with Watson

Jimenez, Fowler, Kuchar, Blixt all in running heading into final day at ‘crazy fast’ Augusta

Jordan Spieth, right, holds up his club after a birdie putt while Adam Scott, of Australia, walks off the green after a bogie on the 15th hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Augusta, Ga.

Photograph by: Chris Carlson
, AP

There is something to be said for a sport in which, at its very highest level, a 50-year-old, cigar-smoking red wine aficionado with a reddish Afro barely contained by a ponytail, can compete on the same level as an unnaturally mature 20-year-old who looks and talks like every mother’s son.

But then, there is every kind of character on the first page of the Masters leaderboard, from Texas prodigy Jordan Spieth and the decidedly offbeat Bubba Watson, who share the 54-hole lead, to the aforementioned Miguel Angel Jimenez, who’s not even the oldest of the 11 pursuers sitting within four shots of the pacesetters, because that would be Freddie Couples, 54.

It is guaranteed to be a hot, dry, hard, fast Sunday at Augusta National, and no one is going to get through it without some pain.

“Its crazy, crazy fast out there,” said Spieth, who has a chance to be the youngest-ever Masters winner, bumping Tiger Woods from that distinction, and the youngest to win a major of any kind since Gene Sarazen at the 1922 U.S. Open.

“We kind of realized early how difficult this golf course was going to play today. You could tell from No. 1 on,” Spieth said. “I mean, there are front pins that you really couldn’t stay below, so you’re going to be putting downhill, downgrain, and it’s almost like you’re putting on rolling gravel. It was like it was picking up speed even as it went by the hole. I’ve never putted on greens like this before.

“I’ve never picked so many targets at the middle of the greens when I’ve see the pins on the side and committed to it. I want to go at the pin, but you can’t do it here. You have to just accept par and accept the fact that you’re going to have some wicked fast putts and you’ve got to really be on your game, on your speed control, even when you do hit the smart shot.”

How fast was it? Brandt Snedeker five-putted the fourth green from a starting distance of four feet. Five-putted.

Threadbare pool tables have more nap than is left on Augusta’s greens, and it’ll be interesting to see if they put some water on them overnight or let the lads putt on purplish felt Sunday.

But fair or unfair, it made for great theatre Saturday and don’t tell Jimenez it was unplayable. The expressive Spaniard shot the week’s best round, a six-under-par 66, to tie for fifth with Ricky Fowler, who fashioned a 67, and they’re one shot behind Matt Kuchar (68) and Sweden’s Jonas Blixt (71), one of only two players in the field to have shot three rounds under par.

The other is Spieth, whose 71-70-70 scores have pretty much reflected how solid his game — and his head — have been. The 2013 PGA Tour rookie of the year shouldn’t be this much in control of his environment, this soon, but you wouldn’t want to bet against him becoming the first Masters debutant to win the green jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 is very much alive.

This is one very cool kid. And he’s had some fairly informed advice, from fellow Texan (and two-time Masters winner) Ben Crenshaw, and Jack Nicklaus, and especially Crenshaw’s longtime Augusta caddy, Carl Jackson.

“It’s funny, I told Michael (Greller, his caddy) I was going to buy a T-shirt for him that said, ‘Carl says’ because he keeps saying that to me out there. So we’ll have to get that made,” Spieth said.

“Mr. Crenshaw was very helpful. I had a little talk with Mr. Nicklaus, and he helped me out this was Wednesday evening at a dinner here. So those guys, which I think are pretty good guys to learn something about the golf course from, you know, have really helped.”

“What’s the cutoff age where you stop calling them Mister?” someone asked.

“Anyone older than me,” Spieth said.

“So you’ll call Bubba ...?”

“Yeah, Mr. Watson, for sure. Just because it’ll mess with him.”

Spieth made four birdies and two bogeys, at the 4th and 11th, the two hardest holes on the course, “so my two bogeys felt like pars,” he said, and just slowly reeled in Watson, the 36-hole leader, who was ahead by as many as five strokes after an eagle at the second hole got him to 8-under-par, but ended up shooting 74.

Jimenez, on the other hand, poured it on from start to finish, and made five birdies on the back nine.

“I feel very nice, you know. Beautiful day there, just light breeze sometimes. Great to play golf on a day like that,” he said.

“I played very solid from greentotees. My iron shots was working very good, too, and you hole some putts when you were having chances for birdies. Minus six, you cannot complain.”

He’s 30 years Spieth’s senior, but said, “50 doesn’t mean that you cannot play well. I’m still moving. I’m still flexible. I still hit the ball I hit the ball longer than ever. I’m not a long hitter necessarily, just a medium hitter. But I still play my irons, when I want to play fade or draw, high or low, it still happens. I’m competitive, you know.”

He was more competitive, this day, than anyone. At 50, he is eligible for the Champions Tour and is committed to making his debut with the old boys next week, but he has his eye on a Ryder Cup berth, and a big finish here would probably cinch it.

Defending champ Adam Scott foundered to a front-nine 40 and never ever recovered. Long-hitting Gary Woodland went out in a record-tying 30 to put himself in the midst of the fight, but promptly lost it, and came back in 39. Thomas Bjorn had a share of the lead at the turn with Watson and Blixt, but dunked his golf ball on both par-fives, 13 and 15, and ended at 2-under-par with Jim Furyk and Lee Westwood, three off the pace.

Story Tools

Jordan Spieth, right, holds up his club after a birdie putt while Adam Scott, of Australia, walks off the green after a bogie on the 15th hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Augusta, Ga.

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